To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity. It’s a worthy aim and one we all should aspire to.

It’s also one of the three stated purposes of Mensa International, the largest, oldest, and most famous IQ society.

To join, all you need to do is take a properly supervised Mensa-approved test and score within the upper 2 percent of the general population. Good luck with that.

But no luck is needed to foster one specific type of human intelligence for the benefit of your health. Not according to new findings published last Monday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN).

In this case, all you need is to let your innate “nutritional intelligence” shine through. Unfortunately, there’s something that can cloud or even eclipse this.

It’s called ultraprocessed food (UPF), and it’s ubiquitous.

Data derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted between August 2021 and August 2023 found that those 19 years of age and older received 53 percent of their calories from UPFs. Those younger consumed even more, 61.9 percent.

According to Carlos Monteiro, the Brazilian epidemiologist who coined the term in 2009, UPFs are “industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods (oils, fats, sugar, starch, and proteins), derived from food constituents (hydrogenated fats and modified starch), or synthesized in laboratories from food substrates or other organic sources (flavor enhancers, colors, and several food additives used to make the product hyperpalatable).” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also calls them “hyperpalatable,” as well as “energy-dense, low in dietary fiber, contain[ing] little or no whole foods, while having high amounts of salt, sweeteners, and unhealthy fats.”

Whatever you choose to call them, Americans are evidently eating lots of them.

But what’s just as evident to Jeff Brunstrom is “when people are offered unprocessed options, they intuitively select foods that balance enjoyment, nutrition, and a sense of fullness, while still reducing overall energy intake. [That] our dietary choices aren’t random — in fact, we seem to make much smarter decisions than previously assumed, when foods are presented in their natural state.”

Brunstrom, a Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol expresses this view in a University of Bristol press release after he, colleagues, and a few top U.S. nutritional experts, reanalyzed data from a May 2019 Cell Metabolism study to create the aforementioned one.

The 2019 study concluded by suggesting eating less ultraprocessed foods may be an “effective strategy” to prevent obesity as well as treat it.

It began when 20 “weight-stable adults” about 30 years of age spent four weeks at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and had all their meals prepared for them during that time. Each received an ultraprocessed diet for two weeks and an unprocessed diet for 2 weeks.

All meals served contained the same number of calories, macronutrients, sugar, sodium, and fiber. Participants were instructed to consume as much or as little food as they desired during each meal.

While on the ultraprocessed diet, participants ate, on average, 508 more calories per day and gained, on average, 2 pounds in the two weeks. While on the unprocessed diet they lost, on average, 2 pounds.

In all likelihood, this “seminal” study will remain best known for this 4-pound weight swing and exposing how eating UPFs can lead to unnecessary calorie consumption and weight gain. But when Brunstrom’s crew reanalyzed the data, they detected something else that may very well prove to be just as valuable in the battle versus obesity.

When participants followed the unprocessed food diet, they chose to “load up” on fruits and veggies instead of eating “more calorific” unprocessed foods “like steak, pasta, and cream.” In fact, they loaded up to such a degree that they ate 57 percent more food by weight when compared to the two weeks on the ultraprocessed diet — yet they lost two pounds.

But that’s not the real reason why the presser calls this new discovery “further weight” to the theory of “inbuilt nutritional intelligence.” It’s because, as study co-author Mark Schatzker and author of The Dorrito Effect and The End of Craving explains, by loading up fruits and veggies the participants received sufficient amounts of essential vitamins and minerals.

If the participants would’ve loaded up on higher-calorie unprocessed food instead, they would have eventually developed micronutrient insufficiencies.

Which is why you should now take a moment, do a quick review of your current eating habits, and ask yourself a version of the question posed in today’s title: “Has eating UPFs altered my food IQ?”

If you think the answer could be yes, here’s what you need to do. Replace most of the ultraprocessed foods you eat with unprocessed ones for two or three weeks.

After that, think no more.

For if Brunstrom and his colleagues are correct, this is all you do to allow your innate nutritional intelligence to shine through. Something that’s sure to lead to a healthier you.